Everyday we sort. It’s the hard work we are always engaged in but rarely realize we’re doing. We are most familiar with sorting things out like our finances or job, our relationship or a family catastrophe. But we also sort through our inner world, like complicated feelings or the endless rehashing of life situations and our reactions to them. At the bottom of all that we touch the things we can’t quite explain. Still we go on sorting. What do we want, what makes sense, what doesn’t? How and why and what we sort through tells us more about the person we really are and all that we are trying to become. In the end all of this sorting helps us find our way home to our truest self.

What we’re really doing with all this sorting is writing our personal manifesto. We are gaining the bigger picture of ourselves piece by piece and greater clarity about what we want or don’t want. All this sorting helps construct our inner and outer worlds brick by brick. It also helps us re-evaluate what matters or what we’ve outgrown and how to proceed. Sorting points us to what’s next by peeling away what no longer works.

Mostly sorting goes on behind the scenes in the millions of different mundane decisions we make everyday. We may know what we like or don’t like but don’t go any further into the why. Consciously sorting is where all the heavy lifting takes place, when the why of it all becomes just as important and needs some more unraveling. That kind of sorting is powerful and can redirect our lives, help us make sound choices, and create clear boundaries we can stick to. Conscious sorting can get us out of a heap of trouble because we finally see more of what’s been going on underneath the steady stream of our days and decisions.

The next step tends to be an aha or revelation that tells us about the deeper levels of our lives and how we would like to navigate them. So don’t be afraid to sort through everything that arises, what makes you feel ecstatic as well as what stomps on your soul. These point to what needs more attention or letting go. This is how we find balance and center. This is how we build a life that is joyful and that matters to us.

So what needs sorting out in your life?

kb